Final Endeavor Launch and Flight

The other morning I happened to be sitting in the Magnolia Parke Starbucks, just before the Space Shuttle Endeavor was to be launched into space for its final mission. There is a multi-storied building across the street, and its stairwell is open to the outside with views of the south and east. In other words, a perfect platform from which to watch the launch. So that's what I did: I walked across the street, up the stairs, and voila, a couple of minutes after the scheduled launched I saw a sharp point of light followed by a long white trail, hugging the horizon in the southeast above the treetops and tapering almost horizontally (from my vantage point in Gainesville) in a northerly direction. Then it was gone.

Now it's out there in low Earth orbit, delivering and installing its important scientific cargo to study the universe and try to unlock some of the secrets about its composition, beginning, and future. Hopefully, with the reports of damaged tiles on the shuttle's outer casing, it will return safely again intact and with all aboard alive and well.

I am saddened by what seems to me the downsizing and outsourcing of our once highly respected, ambitious, and capable space program. But apparently this is reflective of what the American people want. They collectively have little interest in space exploration anymore. That wasn't the case when I was growing up in the 1960's, when at school they would have the the TV on all day to show how the Gemini and Apollo flights were progressing, complete with simulations, long drawn-out commentary, and Tang commercials...

...Hey, wait a minute, that WAS awfully boring, come to think of it. No wonder the American people lost interest!